Write for different ensembles

One fantastic thing the composition major at Berklee College of Music did for me was force me to write for different ensembles. Before going to Berklee I’d only thought about writing for orchestra. At Berklee I wrote for solo piano, solo marimba, solo flute, a bunch of different duos, orchestra, different trio groups, string quartet, Pierrot ensemble, and many other ensembles.

It’s a great way to practice making music and learning about different instruments and how those instruments make music.

It also forces you to think about writing music that fits on the instrument, rather than just thinking about notes abstractly. For some ensembles you have to think about balancing all of the instruments because some may more easily over power others. So you need to take that into account when composing for those ensembles.

All of these apply to orchestra, but there’s a lot of padding in orchestra. The instruments can sometimes hide behind others and the writing isn’t as exposed. In a piece for solo violin everything is exposed.

And it can be incredibly helpful for your writing to be able to write for different ensembles and groups.

Here are some ideas for ensembles to write for:

• solo any instrument – violin, cello, viola, flute, clarinet, marimba, piano etc.
• piano + other instrument
• duos – flute + clarinet, violin + cello, violin + flute, etc.
• piano trio – violin, cello, piano
• piano quartet – violin, viola, cello, piano
• string quartet – violin, violin, viola, cello
• Pierrot ensemble – flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano
• any variations of the above

Give some of these a try.